One of the driving forces behind bringing the 2002 Commonwealth Games to Manchester has championed a 'North of England Olympics' amid reports London is planning a bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to the capital, possibly in 2036.
Sir Howard Bernstein, the chief executive of Manchester city council at the time, floated the idea as he reminisced on Manchester's Commonwealth Games 20 years on. He said he believes a cross-county Olympics here would be supported by the public.
Cities including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield would be involved together with Manchester, he argued, with sports - and the economic benefits and inspiration they bring - shared around stadia. Sir Howard said to him, the current Olympic model seemed outdated.
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"I think the opportunities for one single city, even a big city, to do all of that stuff from scratch, I think is quite remote, he told the Manchester Evening News. "I think that if you are going to look at Olympics, you have got to start to address how you do it across cities.
"The idea of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, whatever, doing something like that in the future, I think that would be a far better option than London doing it again in 2036 quite frankly, as is being spoken about.
"A North of England Olympics. You could see Manchester being one of those hubs. But you could see sport being shared across a number of northern cities. Well I could, in the way I think of things. I think that could actually command respect and support. I think it would enjoy public support.
"And you know, why should we assume that money should go to London? London did a great job, on the back of Manchester. The Olympics now should be, it's not what you can do for the Olympics, it's what the Olympics can do for social mobility and greater levels of community cohesion - and inspiration."
Twenty years ago this week, athletes from 72 nations competed over 11 days across Manchester, attracting many thousands of fans to the city and ultimately leaving a lasting legacy still being felt today. Manchester Aquatics Centre, the 'medal factory' Velodrome and the regeneration of east Manchester - all products of the Games' success.
But Manchester, said Sir Howard, didn't want the Commonwealth Games solely to be a triumph for its sporting prowess. Following on from the rebuilding of Manchester city centre after the 1996 IRA bomb, he said the city wanted to show itself off on the world stage as well as fulfil its responsibility on the track and field for athletes and their nations.
The Commonwealth Games in Manchester was an 'important moment for our transformative journey as a city', Sir Howard said.
It was the most significant multi-sport event to be held in the UK since the Olympics of 1948 and the largest in the history of the Commonwealth Games in terms of participating nations, all held in the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.
Sir Howard, who retired from the town hall in March 2017 after almost 20 years in the job and a lifetime in local politics, said: "We didn't want it to be just a successful sporting event. We wanted it to be a way of communicating to the outside world that Manchester was a place of creativity and culture - a place where all our communities were justifiable proud.
"But at the same time we recognised the national obligation of performing well and delivering an outstanding games. Because without that the prospect of a London Olympics, or a successful London Olympic bid, would have been pretty remote if I am being frank."
There were 'sleepless nights' along the way - and 'dark tunnels'. But Sir Howard said Manchester's Games was a 'wildly exciting' huge success and spoke of his pride that it has continued to catapult the city's regeneration.
"The most pleasing feature of it for me is that having come through that dark tunnel - and I'll be clear there were some very dark periods around that time - the organisational and fiscal challenges that were involved, which were significant, we continued to use that [the Commonwealth Games] as a platform for the continuing growth and development of the city."
Sir Howard praised the strong city council, as well as the commitment of the business community and private sector leaders across Greater Manchester. "And also our continuing commitment to invest in those things which are key to international trade and investment policy," he said.
The council retained the responsibility for delivering the capital facilities. "It was hard," he said. "Many sleepless nights, particularly coming off the back of having to rebuild the city centre in the aftermath of the terrorist bomb.
"Yes, wildly exciting, but also very challenging. I must have been the only guy at that stage, perhaps one or two others, who couldn't wait from the moment the games started for them to finish!"
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said his office is 'working on a plan' to bring the Olympics and Paralympics back to the city. The earliest London could bid for a Games would be 2036, with Paris (2024), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032) staging the next three Games.
"We're working on a plan to bring the Olympics back to London, and I’ll tell you why," Khan told Sky Sports at an event marking the 10th anniversary of London 2012.
"We've seen over the last few days the consequences of climate change in relation to the heatwaves, in relation to the grass fires that have destroyed 41 properties in London. What we need is to make sure future Games are green and what we’re doing is working on a plan to have the greenest Games ever.
"The great thing about London is you don’t expend carbon on building new stadiums, new places to do cycling, new places to do swimming, because we’ve got all the kit. And so watch this space."
The winning bid for the 2036 host city is expected to be announced within the next four years. If a London bid were launched and to be successful, the city would become the first to stage four Olympic Games after previous editions in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
In 2017, Manchester stood ready to host another Commonwealth Games, joining forces with neighbours Liverpool and agreeing to provide venues for its bid for this year's Commonwealth Games.
The tournament was due to be held in Durban, South Africa, however the city was stripped of the privilege, awarded in 2015, after they failed to meet key obligations. Manchester was one of several cities, alongside Birmingham, London and Liverpool, said to be interested in stepping into the breach.
However in the April, then council leader Sir Richard Leese wrote to the Prime Minister saying that although Manchester was ‘ready’ to host the games, it would be ‘inappropriate’ to compete against other cities, throwing the city's support around Liverpool's bid.
The Government, however, opted for Birmingham, where the 2022 Commonwealth Games begins with an opening ceremony at the city's Alexander Stadium on Thursday.
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